Tip Berlin, issue 02/22 from 20.01.2022

 

THE LOOK AT THE OTHER

(translated from: BLICK AUF DEN ANDEREN)

The boundaries of portrait photography were to be explored for the group exhibition “Portraits without Borders” at Fotogalerie Friedrichshain. This is no easy undertaking in the age of the digital selfie, where both the staging and manipulation of images are commonplace. Nevertheless, most of the invited international photographers make bold statements, such as Aljohara’s indictment of genital mutilation by stylising the clitoris into a precious shiny pearl, and Iness Rychlik with her own skin, which she uses as a canvas for pain, loneliness and violence. 

The Potsdam-based duo Koschies has transcended the boundaries of portrait photography with their time-slit camera shots. Here, the subjects are photographically captured for 30 seconds on permanently moving film and appear as an image in which temporal and spatial axes seamlessly merge. The models depicted emerge in a flattened 360˚ view in which even emotional changes are chronicled in the course of the shot. In this way, like most portraitists, the duo tries to get closer to the human soul.

Constanze Suhr